


36 "We''ll figure it out"

by allousive



Series: One Hundred Ways To Say 'I Love You' [22]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Family Planning, Fluff, Kid Fic, Light Angst, M/M, Victoire is the best friend, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29184426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allousive/pseuds/allousive
Summary: Having kids is probably something they should've spoken about sooner.
Relationships: Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter
Series: One Hundred Ways To Say 'I Love You' [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1406428
Kudos: 30





	36 "We''ll figure it out"

**Author's Note:**

> i just love family stories and having all the characters together and loving each other <333333 i'm also trying to develop my writing and flesh things out a little bit so things might get longer over here, hope that's okay. enjoy, and thank you for reading :)

* * *

36 “We’ll figure it out”

Teddy’s brain hurt. He’d been mulling over his thoughts and actions for about 40 minutes now and was still at the same conclusion he’d been previously.

As an honorary member of the Weasley family and their entourage, Teddy had been there for the birth and lives of 14 children. With the eldest, Teddy had only been 1 which is why he and Victoire felt much more like equals, but by the time Lily and Hugo had been born he was 10 years old and so felt much more responsible for them.

Through helping to raise and be a role model for a bunch of Weasley children, he’d never felt that he needed to have children of his own. He wasn’t necessarily concerned that he would be a bad parent or that he wouldn’t be able to support them, he just never felt like it was something he was missing out on experiencing. It was something that he had never really spoken out loud because it had never come up in conversation, he had never been with anyone long enough or who had meant enough for the idea of kids to arise. Until being with James.

The sun was streaming in through the large windows behind them, sun spilling on the backs of their heads and making the colour of the tv seem a little dim and the screen more reflective than usual. Much like every Sunday afternoon, they had been lounging on the sofa watching tv together, James with his feet tucked up underneath him and Teddy with his legs stretched out and resting on their coffee table. Today they had on an old re-run of Supernanny and the topic of kids had come up.

“When do you think we’ll have kids?” James asked out of the blue, smiling brightly at Teddy not realising how much baggage that question would hold.

Teddy didn’t respond for a minute, his hand had stopped it’s scratching movements it was doing in James’ hair, shocked by the question. They had been together for 4 years, but James had only just turned 27 and Teddy wasn’t expecting that from him. He also didn’t know how honest he should be.

“I don’t know,” Teddy shrugged, deciding to go with honesty, “I’m not sure if I even want any.”

He removed his hand from the top of James’ head and scratched at the stubble growing on his chin, not knowing where to look. James had unfolded himself from his position and had turned to look at Teddy, legs crossed.

He looked shocked, and even sounded it when he said, “I can’t believe we’ve never spoken about this. You don’t want kids?”

“I just don’t think it’s something I’m desperate for that’s all. I just assumed if it happened it would’ve been because of an accident that I would just have to deal with.” Teddy said and then regretted immediately because of the look on James’ face.

“If you had ended up with a woman maybe. But we can’t just accidentally have a baby you know?” He responded, his voice a little bitter as he picked at a blue thread hanging out of one of their sofa cushions.

“I know how biology works J,” Teddy pulled James’ hand away from the loose thread, not wanting him to unravel it, “I didn’t mean it like that. I just feel like if I didn’t have kids I wouldn’t be missing out, that’s all.”

“Really? Why have you never told me this?” James wasn’t sure how he should be reacting, he was upset, but he was probably more surprised at the whole thing.

Teddy shrugged again, “We’ve never spoken about kids before, not having our own at least. I’ve never stated explicitly that I wanted them, so I assumed you just knew. What, is that a dealbreaker?” He tried his best not to sound defensive, but he wasn’t sure how well that was coming out.

James shook his head in confusion, rubbing his hands over his face, “I just am surprised.”

“Do you want kids?” Teddy asked, feeling a bit stupid that he was only asking this question now and not four years ago when they first started dating.

“I mean, yeah, I would like to have some eventually. With you.” He added on the end, looking at Teddy sincerely.

“Is it a dealbreaker?” Teddy repeated his question, scared of the answer.

James sighed and looked away, “I just need to some time to process this. That’s all.”

Teddy reached out to touch James, maybe pull him closer for a hug, but the other man flinched away and stood up from the sofa.

“We’ve got to be at The Burrow in about 40 minutes, I’m gonna go take a shower.” James explained, before disappearing out of the lounge and up the stairs.

Teddy didn’t really know what to do with himself after that, which was how he found himself sat at the kitchen table, chin resting in his palm and staring into a glass of water as he waited for 5:30pm to arrive.

The creak of the stairs made him sit up, wordlessly he cast a cleaning charm over himself, then stood up and put his glass in the sink.

“Ready?” He heard James ask, coming into the kitchen.

“Yeah. James, can we-“ Teddy started but was interrupted.

“It’s already gone half past, we’ll be late for dinner.” James said, before leaving the room and going out into the living room to stand in front of the fireplace.

Teddy sighed, pushed his hair back and out of his eyes, then followed James out into the living room. All members of the Weasley family had their floo system connected to The Burrow, making travel their so much more convenient. As James stepped into the fireplace, Teddy looked at the framed photo of them resting on the mantel piece, a picture they’d taken on their first anniversary, laughing into the camera and just so happy to be in each other’s presence, like they usually were.

Stepping out of a fireplace into a completely different room to where you went in was still strange even though Teddy had been experiencing it all his life. He wasn’t surprised to be met with the entire Weasley family descendants sat around talking in the living area, him and James were usually the last to arrive.

James hadn’t waited for Teddy to come through, he had immediately gone over to his brother and Rose who were sat on the floor in front of a Wizard’s Chess set.

“Alright Ted?” Harry had said from where he was squashed into one of the sofas, breaking his conversation with Ron and Bill to greet his godson.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Teddy replied with a smile, always happy to see Harry, who had started greying round the sides of his hair, although he heavily denied.

Teddy looked around the room and caught the eye of Victoire, who was sat with Molly Jr. and Dominique, she waved him over but he shook his head and pointed in the direction of the kitchen. He left the living area and went out into the kitchen to greet Molly and Arthur. He was greeted with a smile from Arthur who was bustling away as usual, giving George instructions on what to chop next and trying to stop Hugo and Lily from burning anything.

“Hello sweetheart!” Molly stopped what she was doing and pulled Teddy in for a hug, no one visited The Burrow without a hug from Molly Weasley.

“Hi Molly.” Teddy loved her dearly, even more so because she had never insisted he call her anything other than her name. Calling her Grandma had never felt right, even if she always made him feel like family.

“Did James come in with you? I didn’t hear him.” She asked, picking her bowl back up and carrying on what she was doing.

“Yeah, he did, he’s in the other room with Al.” Teddy gave no further explanation.

He turned back to go and speak to Harry, or maybe Hermione, but before he could Victoire, Molly and Dominique were coming out of the living area and blocked his pathway.

“Ted!” Victoire said in delight, flinging her arms around him.

The three women had spent the summer with their significant others at Victoire’s house in France, so they were all tanned and speaking with a slight accent.

“Coming outside?” Molly asked, pulling a packet of cigarettes out of her pocket and nodding the backdoor.

Teddy smiled and huffed out a little laugh, Molly, at 29 years of age, was still hiding cigarettes from her dad and grandparents and trying to play it off like they belonged to her older cousins. He followed the three outside and sat down on one side of a picnic bench in the garden, away from the view of any windows. Molly passed the packet round and Teddy took a cigarette, feeling somewhat relieved. He had stopped himself having one when James had gone in the shower, trying to ween himself off them, but right now he really needed it.

Exhaling the smoke, Teddy sighed and looked up at the sky. It wasn’t dark yet, it wouldn’t be for a couple more hours, but the moon was starting to show which always made him smile. Taking another drag of the cigarette he looked around the garden, it held so many memories from years gone by for so many people. When he was younger, he used to sit and try to imagine his parents in this garden, he knew they’d visited The Burrow a couple times and he liked to think about how they would have moved and fit in with the house. Feeling heat on the end of his fingertips from the ash of the cigarette broke him out of his thoughts, he tapped it off then look at the three women who were all already looking at him. He opened his mouth to start speaking but Victoire leaned over and shushed him, starting to speak herself.

“What is going on with you and Jamie?” Teddy loved her French accent, and told her so often, but right now it was the furthest from what was on his mind.

“What do you mean?” He asked, trying to feign innocence by looking over head and at the trees that stood in a row behind her.

“Do give it a rest Teddy,” Molly rolled her eyes, she was almost the master of making you feel ridiculous “there is obviously something wrong. He went straight over to Al when he got here, didn’t wait for you like normal and you’re definitely not all over each other and following each other everywhere like usual.”

“We’re not that bad.” Teddy said defensively, although he knew he was wrong.

Try as he might to hide it, he was obsessed with James. Obsessed with everything the other man said or did, every joke James told was funny, every fact full of knowledge and every question interesting. Teddy loved him dearly, more than anything else he could think of, and often he couldn’t stop himself from touching or kissing or just being close to James. For him, being around James was like sitting in a patch of sunlight on a summers day, warm and beautiful.

Dominique gave him a look as if to say, “yes you are” and Teddy sighed again.

“We talked about kids.” He admitted, before taking another drag of the cigarette and feeling heavy as he remembered the conversation and the look on James’ face.

Victoire made a noise of acknowledgement and Molly seemed to grimace, her and Teddy had spoken briefly about children before and she was of the same opinion as him.

“I take it things didn’t go too well?” She asked sympathetically.

“Not really,” he shrugged, “I guess we had just never spoken about it before, so we were on different pages. We probably should’ve, seeing as we’ve been together four years, but he was only 23 when we started dating, I thought that was a bit young to mention kids and then neither of us ever did.”

Molly nodded in agreement, “I don’t know why all the adults in this family thought having kids under the age of 30 was acceptable.”

“Does he want them then?” Dominique asked, ignoring Molly.

“I suppose so? He didn’t really say, he was mostly reacting to the fact that I’m not as keen. It’s not like it is entirely off the table, I just don’t particularly care either way.” It felt good to say what was on his mind to someone and not hold it in, even if they couldn’t solve the problem for him.

“You should probably tell him that then, that’s it not entirely off the table.” Molly shrugged.

“You know James though, if he thinks someone isn’t 100% interested then he’ll scrap the idea even if everyone knows he really wants to do it.” Teddy pushed his hair back again and stubbed out his cigarette, bored of the taste.

Victoire nodded understandingly, then said, “Well you’re hardly going to split up, are you? Don’t be so dramatic and think that you are, you know nothing would stop James from loving you and I don’t think anything would stop you from loving James. So, you should just talk about it, even if it is four years late.”

She had inherited her bluntness from her mother, while Dominique was a little gentler. It did make Teddy laugh though, and maybe that was what he needed. They sat outside talking about the girl’s summer in France for a while until Bill stuck his head out the back door and called them in to say dinner was ready.

Even though he knew James was being distant, Teddy hadn’t expected the other to have gone and sat down the complete opposite end of the table to where he usually sat. But when Teddy made his way to the dinner table, he saw James sat in between his mum and Hermione, Ginny serving potatoes onto his plate while Hermione caught Teddy’s eye and smiled at him.

With nothing he could do about the situation, Teddy sat himself down the other end and ate his dinner, contributing every now and then to conversation going on around him, but focusing mainly on what he wanted to say to James about this whole situation. After dinner, the family sat around for just under two hours, everyone talking and catching up on what had happened since they’d last seen each other.

It was nearing eight when James stood up from the sofa and said, “Teddy, should we go? I’ve got those papers to finish and you’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

Teddy had the day off the next day and James had never finished a paper in his life, but he nodded and agreed anyway, he knew when to do as he was told. They said their goodbyes, Victoire giving him a poignant look and Harry clapping him on the back and looking at him in a way that said, “sort yourselves out” then they stepped into the fireplace and found themselves back home.

Brushing imaginary dust off his tshirt, Teddy looked at James who wasn’t looking at him and instead was making his way over to the sofa. He watched as James threw the decorative sofa cushions onto the floor and then flopped down onto the sofa. Teddy opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by James.

“Sorry,” James started, “for being dramatic and childish.”

Teddy laughed despite the situation, “Who said you were being dramatic and childish?”

“Mum and dad.” James replied, a small smile spreading across his face, he had been laying on his back stretched out and looking up at the ceiling, but he had now rolled onto his side and was staring at Teddy who was still stood by the fireplace.

“I don’t think you were being dramatic, I suppose you just needed to process what was said. I’m sorry we’ve never spoken about it sooner.” Teddy apologised, making his way over to the other man, sitting on the edge of the coffee table and reaching to hold James’ hand over the distance.

James looked at him reluctantly, then gave him his hand to hold, and Teddy would keep telling himself that James’ face lit up a little when they touched.

“It was just a lot to handle, I guess I wasn’t expecting it.” He admitted, looking down at where Teddy was tracing little patterns on the back of his hand.

“Do you want to talk about it more? Each explain our side.” Teddy offered.

James nodded, so Teddy started, “I’ll go first. I don’t hate the idea of kids. I have nothing against it. And if I was to have them with anyone it would be with you, no doubt. I just never had any plans for it. I watched all you guys grow up, so I don’t feel like it’s something I’m missing out on. We’re also going to have about 100 nieces and nephews, at the size of our family, so I always just figured I’d experience it in that way again.” J

ames nodded, listening intently, but still looking slightly crestfallen.

“But,” Teddy added, “it isn’t entirely off the table.”

“Okay.” James replied, he looked a bit more upbeat.

Teddy wasn’t convinced though, so he sat waiting, not saying anything else and waiting for James to finally add what else he wanted to say. After a couple minutes of quiet, James pushed himself up into more of a sitting position.

“It just shocked me. You’re so good with kids Ted that I never expected that you wouldn’t want your own. I suppose I’d never thought about the perspective that you had all us guys to watch grow up, but surely it’s different, when the kids are your own. I want them, I’d love them, and I want them with you. Not loads, we don’t have to be like Grandma, I’d settle for one. It’s just an experience I would love to have and one I want to share with you.” James finally said, his voice getting more passionate as he spoke honestly.

Teddy couldn’t help but smile, he loved how much of hard time James had with not being honest, he just loved how authentically himself he was.

“Okay,” Teddy nodded, wanting James to know he understood, “We can look into it, if you really want to. _We’ll figure it out_.”

“You mean that?” James looked surprised that Teddy had said that.

“I do mean it.” Teddy responded honestly, because he really did mean it.

If something made James happy, Teddy was willing to try it no matter what. Besides, if they did end up having a child and it was anything like James, Teddy wouldn’t be able to stop himself from adoring that child with everything he had in him.

“I do want to,” James said with a relieved look on his face, then quickly added, “but you don’t have to compromise your own wants because of me.”

“James, I would do anything for you, and if this is something you really want, then it’s something I want, and something we’ll do together, okay?” Teddy said earnestly, squeezing James’ hand gently, then kissing his knuckles lightly for good measure.

James smiled properly now, looking almost relieved, then said, “It won’t happen straight away, we’ll have to go through processes, maybe that’ll give you more time to warm to the idea?”

“Sure,” Teddy agreed, “we’ve got loads of time for it to happen.”

“Not loads of time,” James grinned, “you are getting a bit old.”

Despite the insult, Teddy laughed, relieved that James was joking with him again, relieved that this hadn’t caused too much of a rift between them.

“Oh, shut up.” Teddy shook his head, then reached over to James and kissed him.

James smiled into the kiss, content with whatever came next, as long as they had each other.

* * *


End file.
